The Sustainable Livelihoods Approach - Input Paper for the Integrated Training Course of NCCR North-South Aeschiried, Switzerland (9. - 20. September 2002)

Livelihood thinking dates back to the work of Robert Chambers in the mid-1980s. In realising that conventional development concepts did not yield the desired effects and that humankind was additionally facing an enormous population pressure, Chambers developed the idea of “Sustainable Livelihoods” with the intention to enhance the efficiency of development cooperation. His concepts constitute the basics for the Sustainable Livelihoods Approach (SLA), as it was developed by the British Department for International Development (DFID). Starting from 1997, DFID integrated the approach in its program for development cooperation.
The first two chapters of this input paper are mainly based on DFID’s Sustainable Livelihoods Guidance Sheets (DFID, 2000), which are – together with a broad range of further up-to-date information on livelihoods - downloadable in the internet (www.livelihoods.org).